Status: chess training
Jul. 19th, 2021 01:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellerSome statistics about my training on Chessable:
- 178 courses on the dashboard. That’s a ridiculous workload, I know. But, as I’ve mentioned before, I become more efficient when there’s more to do. So, from a psychological standpoint, overloading my to-do-list means I really get more stuff done!
- 38 of those, I actually *finished*. Considering I’ve been on Chessable for 64 days now, that’s 1,7 days per course. Pretty efficient, I’d say – though, of course, many of these courses were free and very short. (Of course, I didn’t do the same amount of work every day: most chess was done on the weekends, with only a bit of evening nerdery before going to sleep otherwise. I have other things to do during my workdays… It's just that I spend the downtime others relax in front of the TV doing chess instead. LOL)
If we only look at the “big” courses I’ve finished, I was, fortunately, *still* efficient (at about one “big” course per week, that is, per weekend). Here’s a list of what I did! (Just ignore if you're not interested in the finer points of my training schedule.)
Finished courses:
- “The Unexpected Mate in 1“ – okay, maybe I shouldn’t count this one. It was easy, and I breezed through it. I did it more as a speed / position-reading exercise than anything else. Blitz practice! (As such, it was actually an excellent course. Also, I’m impressed by the list of famous names who blundered a mate-in-one. Happens to the best! XD)
- “The Checkmate Patterns Manual“ – also, basic tactics. Clicky-clicky fun. (Target group is maybe 1000-1400? The exercises increase in difficulty towards the end of the course, but the hardest ones are still pretty easy. I got this one purely for my personal enjoyment: I’m kind of good at tactics, but I *like* simple checkmates, because they’re SO PRETTY!!!
- “Dazzling Defenses against Checkmate Patterns” – by the same author as the Checkmate Patterns Manual, except this course is about defending against these checkmates. Very interesting, a rarely seen concept! I found these exercises a bit more difficult (1600ish maybe?) than the first course, with great variation in difficulty: some, I spotted immediately, and some, I actually found impossibly hard. I’ll definitely repeat this course; I think it could help my defensive play.
- “Improve Your Chess Tactics: 700 Practical Lessons & Exercises” – another tactics course… Not *quite* as basic as the other ones: I’d say the target group needs a rating of 1700-1800 at least to be able to do these exercises within a reasonable timeframe. (Of course, a very ambitious 1500-1600 player could do them… With a lot of time.) Still: not too hard; I got this thing purely for fun; clicked my way through it in two or three days. (I’m planning to focus more on positional chess in the future, I PROMISE! Just can’t resist the pull of pretty pretty tactics!)
- “Master Your Chess with Judit Polgar - Part 1” – this was, I’d say, a pretty basic course, trying to cover all aspects of the game, in a (necessarily) cursory fashion. (Intended user level according to IM Toth is 1400-1700.) I didn’t learn anything new from it, I just got it because GM JPolgar is fun to watch, what with all her chess enthusiasm. It was excellent entertainment, with well-chosen examples. I regret nothing! (Also, I will get the next part of this series when it comes out.)
- “Chess Principles Reloaded – Center“ – this was an interesting one. While the title sounds like it should be a beginner course, the thinking approaches were actually pretty advanced, and I think I actually learned something… Even more from the (outstanding!) videos than from the clicky-clicky part. There are a part two and three of this, about the other opening principles (development and king safety), and I’ve already bought them and plan to do them ASAP.
“Strategy Training: Magnus Carlsen“ – I’m counting this one, because, while the course has only 30 “trainable lines”, those made me think really really hard. The level of this stuff is definitely advanced, and I learned something!
“The Initiative in Chess - a How to Guide” – probably my favorite course so far, although it REALLY needs the video! The thing is: it’s an advanced course, and I’m exactly the target group for it: tactical attack player with occasional positional difficulties when it comes to finding strong moves without an immediate tactical win visible. It’s not a “tactics course” in the sense of recognizing patterns (which I’m good at anyway) but rather… a way of how to think about a position. This was extremely helpful, and I think I’ll have to re-watch the videos several times!
You may have noticed this list does not include opening courses: that’s because I haven’t finished any “big” opening courses yet. The way things have gone so far, I did the free version (Short&Sweet) and then decided whether to buy the full version or not. I’m not counting this as a failure, either: these courses are a lot of information, so I’m going slowly! (Also: watching the videos first, before I go all clicky-clicky.)
Work in progress - openings:
- “The Najdorf Sicilian: Simplified“ – excellent introduction; I was convinced by the video explanations in the free course to get the full course. It’s an interesting treatment of this opening, with a focus more on ideas than concrete variations. Since I’m just starting out with the Najdorf Sicilian, this is exactly what I needed!
- „Lifetime Repertoires: Najdorf Sicilian“ by Anish Giri. I actually spent a lot of time with the (already excellent) Short&Sweet. Am currently watching the videos (that are “chess rap”, really: never heard anyone talk this fast, except maybe Eminem! GM Giri swears considerably less, though), am looking forward to learning all the lines.
- „Lifetime Repertoires: Nimzo-Ragozin“ – I‘m mainly interested in the Ragozin part of this one, actually. That one is completely new to me because it was not “in fashion” back when I was a really active player, but has shown up on the high level more often recently, so… Yeah. I’m learning it! (Again: liked the Short&Sweet version. Handing out free sample courses is good advertising. LOL)
- “Lifetime Repertoires: Nimzo/Semi-Tarrasch - Part 1” – this is NEW and I already love it! Focus is on aggressive lines that may suit my style… I may want to play this stuff! :D Also: EXCELLENT video explanations; maybe the best I’ve seen. I’m impressed.
- “The Active Bogo-Indian Defense” – still not sure whether I’ll ever play this, but I love the author’s positional explanations.
- “Lifetime Repertoires: Sethuraman's 1.e4 - Part 2” – got this purely for the lines with White against the French. I need to work on that (horrible results against that nightmarish opening) and this looks like something I’d like to play, style-wise. The lines the author gives against the Sicilian look interesting, too: can’t hurt to look at this. (I’m not getting Part I of this purely because the author recommends the Scottish against 1. …e5, and I’m not giving up my beloved Ruy Lopez, ever!)
Work in Progess – Endgames:
- “Harikrishna's Endgame Magic“ – I LOVE THIS! It’s not systematic, it’s hardly organized, and yet, I’m learning sooooo much about *thinking* from these videos!!! I can tell, this is going to be one of my all-time favorites.
- “Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual 5th edition, revised by GM Karsten Müller” – a repetition, because I already read the book in an on-paper version as a kid. (Also, was lucky enough as a kid to end up in a few endgame lessons by Müller in person.) It’s one of these classics that really deserve the title. Also, I love the video version with additional explanations: it really helps make the content more accessible. Excellent treatment of the material.
Work in Progress – various Yasser Seirawan courses:
(“Winning Chess Strategies“, ”Winning Chess Brilliancies“, “Winning Chess Endings”, “Winning Chess Tactics “, “Chess Duels”) – the thing is: these courses are, without any doubt, really good. They’re intended for the 1200-1500 player, and they feature very thorough explanations. That’s good, because I’m occasionally finding very basic positional concepts I had missed so far: I’m still learning from these! (Admittedly, this means I suck at positional chess, but I’ll own *that*.) Also, GM Seirawan has a good presenting style and a pleasant voice. Unfortunately, this means I’ve fallen asleep (!) during his videos repeatedly. (Excellent sleeping aid… LOL) Not a quality issue, just a result of mostly-known-to-me material and nice, slow presentation… Still: I actually like these courses a lot, although I haven’t been able to finish any yet. (Need to re-watch some stuff, because, yeah, fell asleep halfway through.)
Work in Progress – various others:
- “Beyond Material“ – ohhhh, this one is still so much fun! Advanced material, very well presented. It’s all about giving up material for other types of compensation, and I’m good at that, and I love it. XD
- “How Good Is Your Chess?” – also a lot of fun; I got this because I’ve read several on-paper books by Daniel King and I’m following his youtube channel, too. Good choice of material, great presentation as usual. Part 2 of this is already bought and waiting for me. :)
- “The Woodpecker Method“ – I don‘t understand the hype about this book, really: it’s a nice tactics course (and, yes, I’ll continue it because at least the more difficult problems are interesting) but nothing more than that. Certainly not the holy grail of chess training or anything…
- “Grandmaster Thinking“ – this is excellent material! Very advanced, though: so, I’m going through this one very, very slowly. I’m enjoying it, though, so it’s all good!
- “Tactics Training - Mikhail Tal“ – I love Tal… This is not the best collection of his tactics, though. Still good, because it’s Tal. Enough said.
- “Chess Strategy for Club Players“ – excellent material; very dry presentation. Am experiencing some difficulties just reading this. I *am* learning stuff, here – but it’s going slow.
- “The Art of Attack in Chess” – overrated classic, I’d say. Chessable went to the admirable effort of fixing the author’s analysis mistakes (the book was written before computers), but, uh, it’s *still* a collection of very basic attack patterns shown with examples from the 19th and early 20th century. Nothing wrong with that if you like history, but I’m pretty bored with this, because I already knew most of these examples, AND they’re featured *better* elsewhere. I know I should repeat this, but still, I keep being distracted by other stuff that’s simply more fun.
- “Chess Pattern Recognition for Beginners“- which is ABSOLUTELY NOT for beginners, unless you consider anyone below IM level a “beginner”. Be warned. It’s *good*, but very advanced indeed (I’m having difficulties with the level, and I’m hardly a beginner by any reasonable standards), so, whoever created the title needs to be fired immediately. I mean, yes, I suck at positional play, but not enough to actually be beginner-level...
- “Grandmaster Preparation: Positional Play“ – this was recommended to me recently, and I only just got started on this, so I don’t have much to say yet. First impression is good. :)
- “Chess Principles Reloaded – Development“ – second installment of the series; just started this after really loving part 1.
...as you can see, I'm pretty ambitious. XD
- 178 courses on the dashboard. That’s a ridiculous workload, I know. But, as I’ve mentioned before, I become more efficient when there’s more to do. So, from a psychological standpoint, overloading my to-do-list means I really get more stuff done!
- 38 of those, I actually *finished*. Considering I’ve been on Chessable for 64 days now, that’s 1,7 days per course. Pretty efficient, I’d say – though, of course, many of these courses were free and very short. (Of course, I didn’t do the same amount of work every day: most chess was done on the weekends, with only a bit of evening nerdery before going to sleep otherwise. I have other things to do during my workdays… It's just that I spend the downtime others relax in front of the TV doing chess instead. LOL)
If we only look at the “big” courses I’ve finished, I was, fortunately, *still* efficient (at about one “big” course per week, that is, per weekend). Here’s a list of what I did! (Just ignore if you're not interested in the finer points of my training schedule.)
Finished courses:
- “The Unexpected Mate in 1“ – okay, maybe I shouldn’t count this one. It was easy, and I breezed through it. I did it more as a speed / position-reading exercise than anything else. Blitz practice! (As such, it was actually an excellent course. Also, I’m impressed by the list of famous names who blundered a mate-in-one. Happens to the best! XD)
- “The Checkmate Patterns Manual“ – also, basic tactics. Clicky-clicky fun. (Target group is maybe 1000-1400? The exercises increase in difficulty towards the end of the course, but the hardest ones are still pretty easy. I got this one purely for my personal enjoyment: I’m kind of good at tactics, but I *like* simple checkmates, because they’re SO PRETTY!!!
- “Dazzling Defenses against Checkmate Patterns” – by the same author as the Checkmate Patterns Manual, except this course is about defending against these checkmates. Very interesting, a rarely seen concept! I found these exercises a bit more difficult (1600ish maybe?) than the first course, with great variation in difficulty: some, I spotted immediately, and some, I actually found impossibly hard. I’ll definitely repeat this course; I think it could help my defensive play.
- “Improve Your Chess Tactics: 700 Practical Lessons & Exercises” – another tactics course… Not *quite* as basic as the other ones: I’d say the target group needs a rating of 1700-1800 at least to be able to do these exercises within a reasonable timeframe. (Of course, a very ambitious 1500-1600 player could do them… With a lot of time.) Still: not too hard; I got this thing purely for fun; clicked my way through it in two or three days. (I’m planning to focus more on positional chess in the future, I PROMISE! Just can’t resist the pull of pretty pretty tactics!)
- “Master Your Chess with Judit Polgar - Part 1” – this was, I’d say, a pretty basic course, trying to cover all aspects of the game, in a (necessarily) cursory fashion. (Intended user level according to IM Toth is 1400-1700.) I didn’t learn anything new from it, I just got it because GM JPolgar is fun to watch, what with all her chess enthusiasm. It was excellent entertainment, with well-chosen examples. I regret nothing! (Also, I will get the next part of this series when it comes out.)
- “Chess Principles Reloaded – Center“ – this was an interesting one. While the title sounds like it should be a beginner course, the thinking approaches were actually pretty advanced, and I think I actually learned something… Even more from the (outstanding!) videos than from the clicky-clicky part. There are a part two and three of this, about the other opening principles (development and king safety), and I’ve already bought them and plan to do them ASAP.
“Strategy Training: Magnus Carlsen“ – I’m counting this one, because, while the course has only 30 “trainable lines”, those made me think really really hard. The level of this stuff is definitely advanced, and I learned something!
“The Initiative in Chess - a How to Guide” – probably my favorite course so far, although it REALLY needs the video! The thing is: it’s an advanced course, and I’m exactly the target group for it: tactical attack player with occasional positional difficulties when it comes to finding strong moves without an immediate tactical win visible. It’s not a “tactics course” in the sense of recognizing patterns (which I’m good at anyway) but rather… a way of how to think about a position. This was extremely helpful, and I think I’ll have to re-watch the videos several times!
You may have noticed this list does not include opening courses: that’s because I haven’t finished any “big” opening courses yet. The way things have gone so far, I did the free version (Short&Sweet) and then decided whether to buy the full version or not. I’m not counting this as a failure, either: these courses are a lot of information, so I’m going slowly! (Also: watching the videos first, before I go all clicky-clicky.)
Work in progress - openings:
- “The Najdorf Sicilian: Simplified“ – excellent introduction; I was convinced by the video explanations in the free course to get the full course. It’s an interesting treatment of this opening, with a focus more on ideas than concrete variations. Since I’m just starting out with the Najdorf Sicilian, this is exactly what I needed!
- „Lifetime Repertoires: Najdorf Sicilian“ by Anish Giri. I actually spent a lot of time with the (already excellent) Short&Sweet. Am currently watching the videos (that are “chess rap”, really: never heard anyone talk this fast, except maybe Eminem! GM Giri swears considerably less, though), am looking forward to learning all the lines.
- „Lifetime Repertoires: Nimzo-Ragozin“ – I‘m mainly interested in the Ragozin part of this one, actually. That one is completely new to me because it was not “in fashion” back when I was a really active player, but has shown up on the high level more often recently, so… Yeah. I’m learning it! (Again: liked the Short&Sweet version. Handing out free sample courses is good advertising. LOL)
- “Lifetime Repertoires: Nimzo/Semi-Tarrasch - Part 1” – this is NEW and I already love it! Focus is on aggressive lines that may suit my style… I may want to play this stuff! :D Also: EXCELLENT video explanations; maybe the best I’ve seen. I’m impressed.
- “The Active Bogo-Indian Defense” – still not sure whether I’ll ever play this, but I love the author’s positional explanations.
- “Lifetime Repertoires: Sethuraman's 1.e4 - Part 2” – got this purely for the lines with White against the French. I need to work on that (horrible results against that nightmarish opening) and this looks like something I’d like to play, style-wise. The lines the author gives against the Sicilian look interesting, too: can’t hurt to look at this. (I’m not getting Part I of this purely because the author recommends the Scottish against 1. …e5, and I’m not giving up my beloved Ruy Lopez, ever!)
Work in Progess – Endgames:
- “Harikrishna's Endgame Magic“ – I LOVE THIS! It’s not systematic, it’s hardly organized, and yet, I’m learning sooooo much about *thinking* from these videos!!! I can tell, this is going to be one of my all-time favorites.
- “Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual 5th edition, revised by GM Karsten Müller” – a repetition, because I already read the book in an on-paper version as a kid. (Also, was lucky enough as a kid to end up in a few endgame lessons by Müller in person.) It’s one of these classics that really deserve the title. Also, I love the video version with additional explanations: it really helps make the content more accessible. Excellent treatment of the material.
Work in Progress – various Yasser Seirawan courses:
(“Winning Chess Strategies“, ”Winning Chess Brilliancies“, “Winning Chess Endings”, “Winning Chess Tactics “, “Chess Duels”) – the thing is: these courses are, without any doubt, really good. They’re intended for the 1200-1500 player, and they feature very thorough explanations. That’s good, because I’m occasionally finding very basic positional concepts I had missed so far: I’m still learning from these! (Admittedly, this means I suck at positional chess, but I’ll own *that*.) Also, GM Seirawan has a good presenting style and a pleasant voice. Unfortunately, this means I’ve fallen asleep (!) during his videos repeatedly. (Excellent sleeping aid… LOL) Not a quality issue, just a result of mostly-known-to-me material and nice, slow presentation… Still: I actually like these courses a lot, although I haven’t been able to finish any yet. (Need to re-watch some stuff, because, yeah, fell asleep halfway through.)
Work in Progress – various others:
- “Beyond Material“ – ohhhh, this one is still so much fun! Advanced material, very well presented. It’s all about giving up material for other types of compensation, and I’m good at that, and I love it. XD
- “How Good Is Your Chess?” – also a lot of fun; I got this because I’ve read several on-paper books by Daniel King and I’m following his youtube channel, too. Good choice of material, great presentation as usual. Part 2 of this is already bought and waiting for me. :)
- “The Woodpecker Method“ – I don‘t understand the hype about this book, really: it’s a nice tactics course (and, yes, I’ll continue it because at least the more difficult problems are interesting) but nothing more than that. Certainly not the holy grail of chess training or anything…
- “Grandmaster Thinking“ – this is excellent material! Very advanced, though: so, I’m going through this one very, very slowly. I’m enjoying it, though, so it’s all good!
- “Tactics Training - Mikhail Tal“ – I love Tal… This is not the best collection of his tactics, though. Still good, because it’s Tal. Enough said.
- “Chess Strategy for Club Players“ – excellent material; very dry presentation. Am experiencing some difficulties just reading this. I *am* learning stuff, here – but it’s going slow.
- “The Art of Attack in Chess” – overrated classic, I’d say. Chessable went to the admirable effort of fixing the author’s analysis mistakes (the book was written before computers), but, uh, it’s *still* a collection of very basic attack patterns shown with examples from the 19th and early 20th century. Nothing wrong with that if you like history, but I’m pretty bored with this, because I already knew most of these examples, AND they’re featured *better* elsewhere. I know I should repeat this, but still, I keep being distracted by other stuff that’s simply more fun.
- “Chess Pattern Recognition for Beginners“- which is ABSOLUTELY NOT for beginners, unless you consider anyone below IM level a “beginner”. Be warned. It’s *good*, but very advanced indeed (I’m having difficulties with the level, and I’m hardly a beginner by any reasonable standards), so, whoever created the title needs to be fired immediately. I mean, yes, I suck at positional play, but not enough to actually be beginner-level...
- “Grandmaster Preparation: Positional Play“ – this was recommended to me recently, and I only just got started on this, so I don’t have much to say yet. First impression is good. :)
- “Chess Principles Reloaded – Development“ – second installment of the series; just started this after really loving part 1.
...as you can see, I'm pretty ambitious. XD
